Product Profile: HelloFresh
INDUSTRY
food
Category
meal kit delivery services
products Profiled
HelloFresh meal kit delivery service
HelloFresh Market
H-Score
62
ranked 2nd of 25 within the food industry
ranked 19th of 76 overall
product descriptions
The HelloFresh meal kit delivery service allows subscribers to choose from a variety of recipes and ingredients for weekly delivery. Subscription plans have flat rates, based on the number of meals and servings per meal. HelloFresh Market offers the opportunity to add sides, desserts, pantry items, produce and meats to a subscriber’s meal kit order.(1)
product use
Subscribers start by expressing their dietary preferences. These options, which are not mutually exclusive, include: Meat & Veggies, Veggie, Family Friendly, Fit & Wholesome, Pescatarian, and Quick and Easy. The Fit & Wholesome line includes meals with 650 calories or less and meals with 40 grams or less net carbs (i.e. carbs minus fiber).(2) Subscribers can order up to six meals per week with either two or four servings per meal. One box, with all the ingredients for the week’s meals, is shipped each week. Subscribers have the option of upgrading to gourmet meals or adding extras (desserts, snacks, sides, and other meal items) through the HelloFresh Market.(3)
who’s affected
The target market for meal kit delivery services in general values convenience and healthy eating. One may assume meal kit subscriptions to be more costly than food purchased at a grocery store or meals from chain restaurants due to the packaging of all ingredients in small servings and home delivery shipping costs. For this reason, subscribers tend to have above average income compared to the general population. However, HelloFresh has stated that findings from an internal study indicate that customers spend less through HelloFresh than they would grocery shopping for similar meals.(4) Meal kit delivery services may not be offered to customers in remote, rural locations due to delivery limitations. HelloFresh delivers to all states in the continental US, excluding customers in Alaska and Hawaii.(5)
influence on health-related behaviors
EATING
moderate to strong positive influence
HelloFresh’s meal kit service enables people to cook meals with fresh ingredients two to six times per week.
In general, fresh, home-cooked meals have been shown to be healthier than meals eaten at or taken out from sit-down or fast food restaurants.(6-10) People who cook at home more frequently also tend to have diets that have higher compliance with dietary guidelines.(11)
In Building H’s consumer research, nearly 80% of meal kit users (not specific to HelloFresh) said that meal kit meals were healthier than (34%) or as healthy as (46%) the meals they cooked for themselves. In addition, 69% of users said that their meal kit meals were healthier than meals that they got via delivery or takeout.(12)
In an analysis conducted by Building H, HelloFresh had a modified Restaurant Nutrition Quality (RNQ) score (13,14) of 1.90. Of the five meal kit services in the Index, the range of modified RNQ scores was 2.30 (best) to 1.15 (worst). HelloFresh’s score placed it 2nd highest of the five meal kit services profiled. For context, the median RNQ score for 11 chain restaurants analyzed by Building H was 0.71.
In terms of calories, the top 25 most popular meals listed on HelloFresh’s site had a median of 610 calories per serving, representing 0.90 times the recommended calories for women and 0.69 times the recommended calories for men at dinner.(15) Note that this calorie count does not include beverages consumed with dinner.
HelloFresh allows subscribers to tailor their meals according to dietary preferences – including a “Fit & Wholesome” option in addition to vegetarian and pescatarian options, thus creating opportunities for subscribers to choose healthier meals.
The HelloFresh Market offers a mix of healthy items, such as fresh produce, and less healthy items, such as desserts and ready-to-eat meals.
- Set default or most prominently featured meal selections to the healthiest options available.
PHYSICAL ACTVITY
neutral influence
Cooking a meal certainly involves more physical activity than preparing ready-to-eat or takeout/delivery meals.
While HelloFresh promotes home cooking, it also potentially deters subscribers from the physical activity associated with grocery shopping (to the extent that the meal kits obviate some amount of grocery shopping).
Sleeping
slight positive influence
By offering a relatively healthy alternative to fast food and other food delivery services and by providing a way to prepare meals that is more efficient than cooking from scratch, HelloFresh could potentially be saving people time for sleeping while allowing them to still eat healthy.
HelloFresh offers a Quick & Easy line of recipes with quicker prep and faster clean up as a way to save time.
Engaging Socially
slight positive influence
HelloFresh offers subscription meal plans for a minimum of two and up to six people. Requiring this minimum and offering additional meals might help bring families and friends together for meals.
In Building H’s consumer research, 77% of respondents who use meal kits (not specific to HelloFresh) indicated that they eat with others (23% eat them alone). This result compares with a finding, from a 2015 report from the Food Marketing Index,(16) that Americans eat approximately 46% of meals alone – suggesting that meal kits could contribute to increased social engagement.
To the degree that the service leads to less time in grocery stores, it likely reduces the casual social interactions associated with in-person shopping. In Building H’s consumer research, 54% of shoppers rated these interactions positively, as compared with 9% rating them negatively.(17)
- Offer the ability to order additional meals (beyond normal limits) to facilitate gatherings of friends, family.
- Promote party kits intended for large gatherings.
- Include hosting advice/suggestions in meal kits.
- Consider volume discounts for larger orders.
- Offer and occasionally promote the ability to gift meal kits.
Getting Outdoors
slight negative influence
As noted above, HelloFresh’s service can substitute for grocery shopping. To the degree that the service cuts down on trips to grocery stores, HelloFresh could potentially reduce time spent outdoors.
- Offer outdoor/picnic meal kits that don’t require cooking in a kitchen.
Notes
Michael Brown. HelloFresh Market debuts, adding grocery items to meal kit service. Supermarket News. July 28, 2021.
HelloFresh. Direct communication, March 2022.
HelloFresh website, accessed September 2023.
HelloFresh. Direct communication, December 2023.
HelloFresh Help Center, accessed December 2023.
Julia Wolfson and Sara Bleich. Is Cooking at Home Associated with Better Diet Quality or Weight-Loss Intention? Public Health Nutrition. Volume 18, Supplement 8 (June 2015), pp. 1397-1406.
Junxiu Liu et al. Quality of Meals Consumed by US Adults at Full-Service and Fast-Food Restaurants, 2003–2016: Persistent Low Quality and Widening Disparities. The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 150, Issue 4 (April 2020), pp. 873–883.
R. An. Fast-food and full-service restaurant consumption and daily energy and nutrient intakes in US adults. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Volume 70 (2016), pp. 97–103.
Sharon Kirkpatrick et al. Fast-food menu offerings vary in dietary quality, but are consistently poor. Public Health Nutrition. Volume 17, Issue 4 (2014), pp. 924–31.
Lisa Powell and Binh Nguyen. Fast-food and full-service restaurant consumption among children and adolescents: effect on energy, beverage, and nutrient intake. JAMA Pediatrics. Volume 167, Issue 1 (January 2013), pp. 14–20.
Arpita Tiwari et al. Cooking at Home: A Strategy to Comply With U.S. Dietary Guidelines at No Extra Cost. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Volume 52, Issue 5 (May 2017), pp.616–24.
Steve Downs. A Survey of Modern Life: Food; Delivery Apps, Meal Kits, Groceries and Cooking Dinner. Building H on Medium. January 20, 2022.
Iris Liu et al. A continuous indicator of food environment nutritional quality. MedRxiv. November 26, 2021.
The RNQ is based on the ratio of nutrients recommended by dietary guidelines, e.g. protein and fiber, to ingredients whose consumption should be restricted, such as sugars, sodium and saturated fats, for the median menu item. Building H modified the RNQ by selecting the top 25 meals from HelloFresh’s “Most Popular Meals and Recipes” list on their website in September 2023.
Based on a Building H review of the top 25 menu items listed in the “Most Popular Meals and Recipes” section of HelloFresh’s website in September 2023, as compared with federal data on how Americans distribute their calories across meals (see Eliana Zeballos et al. Frequency and Time of Day That AmericansEat: A Comparison of Data From the AmericanTime Use Survey and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. USDA Economic Research Service, Technical Bulletin Number 1954. July 2019) and federal dietary guidelines for moderately active adults (see U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025. December, 2020, p. 140).
Alison Aubrey and Maria Godoy. Party Of 1: We Are Eating A Lot Of Meals Alone. National Public Radio: All Things Considered, August 13, 2015
Downs (2022).